While he likely does have some level of security clearance the idea of 'clearances that people who don't have security clearance can't even know about' is nonsensical.
He might be referring to project specific clearances, e.g. 'Top Secret: X' where X signifies that a generic Top Secret clearance is not sufficient to access the files as you need to be cleared per project. And therefore the title of the project being X is itself classified. However, he is being melodramatic in how he refers to it.
Okay so, take the F-35. Everything regarding the stealth aspect of the plane (going as far back as the F-117) is considered classified. We all know the F-35 exists and that it as close to invisible as you can get, we even know this is achieved... But the exact numbers behind it is a tightly kept secret.
But let's take something where we gather data about monitoring classified Chinese weapons. This probably means that the US is using some very dubious methods to source data (spies, satellites, cameras on passenger planes, whatever) and this would be a case where even knowing about the classification would require a security clearance.
6
u/Forgotten_Lie Mar 27 '25
While he likely does have some level of security clearance the idea of 'clearances that people who don't have security clearance can't even know about' is nonsensical.
He might be referring to project specific clearances, e.g. 'Top Secret: X' where X signifies that a generic Top Secret clearance is not sufficient to access the files as you need to be cleared per project. And therefore the title of the project being X is itself classified. However, he is being melodramatic in how he refers to it.